Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Maunder Minimum
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|Period of low solar activity, 1645–1715}} [[Image:Sunspot Numbers.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The Maunder Minimum shown in a 400-year history of sunspot numbers]] The '''Maunder Minimum''', also known as the "prolonged sunspot minimum", was a period around 1645 to 1715 during which [[sunspot]]s became exceedingly rare. During the 28-year period 1672–1699 within the minimum, observations revealed fewer than 50 sunspots. This contrasts with the typical 40,000–50,000 sunspots seen in modern times over a similar timespan.<ref>{{cite conference|title=The Maunder Minimum and Climate Change: Have Historical Records Aided Current Research?|conference=Library and Information Services in Astronomy III |series=ASP Conference Series |volume=153 |year=1998 |location=Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife |url=http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/lisa3/beckmanj.html |publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific |author1=John E. Beckman |author2=Terence J. Mahoney |name-list-style=amp }}</ref> The Maunder Minimum was first noted by [[Gustav Spörer]] in publications in 1887 and 1889, work that was relayed to the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] in London, and then expanded on, by solar astronomers [[Edward Walter Maunder]] (1851–1928), and his wife [[Annie Russell Maunder]] (1868–1947), who also studied how sunspot latitudes changed with time. Two papers were published in Edward Maunder's name in 1890<ref>{{cite journal|first=E. W. |last=Maunder |year=1890 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hc4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA251 |title=Professor Spoerer's researches on sun-spots |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=50 |pages=251–252}}</ref> and 1894,<ref>{{Cite journal |first=E. W. |last=Maunder |date=August 1, 1894 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vEjnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA173 |title=A prolonged sunspot minimum |journal=Knowledge |volume=17 | pages=173–176|bibcode=1894KIMS...18..173M }}</ref> and he cited the two earlier papers written by [[Gustav Spörer]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Spörer |first=Gustav |year=1887 |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3040974;view=1up;seq=647 |title=Über die Periodicität der Sonnenflecken seit dem Jahre 1618, vornehmlich in Bezug auf die heliographische Breite derselben, und Hinweis auf eine erhebliche Störung dieser Periodicität während eines langen Zeitraumes |trans-title=On the periodicity of sunspots since the year 1618, especially with respect to the heliographic latitude of the same, and reference to a significant disturbance of this periodicity during a long period |journal=Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft |location=Leipzig |volume=22 |pages=323–329}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=G. |last=Spoerer |date=February 1889 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qThLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA60 |title=Sur les différences que présentent l'hémisphère nord et l'hémisphère sud du Soleil |trans-title=On the differences that the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere of the Sun present |journal=Bulletin Astronomique |volume=6 |pages=60–63|doi=10.3406/bastr.1889.10197 |s2cid=222462846 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Because Annie Maunder had not received a university degree, restrictions at the time caused her contribution not to be publicly recognized.<ref name="bruck1994">{{cite journal | last = Brück | first = Mary T. | author-link = Mary Brück | title=Alice Everett and Annie Russell Maunder, torch bearing women astronomers | journal = [[Irish Astronomical Journal]] | date = 1994 | volume=21 | pages=280–291 | bibcode=1994IrAJ...21..281B }}</ref> The term ''Maunder Minimum'' was popularised by [[John A. Eddy]],<ref>{{cite news|first=Bruce |last=Weber |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/18eddy.html |title=John A. Eddy, Solar Detective, Dies at 78 |work=The New York Times |date=June 17, 2009 |access-date=July 28, 2015}}</ref> who published a landmark paper in [[Science (journal)|''Science'']] in 1976.<ref name="MM_PAPER">{{cite journal|last=Eddy |first=J. A. |title=The Maunder Minimum |journal=Science |volume=192 |issue=4245 |pages=1189–1202 |date=June 1976 |pmid=17771739 |doi=10.1126/science.192.4245.1189 |bibcode=1976Sci...192.1189E |s2cid=33896851 |url=http://bill.srnr.arizona.edu/classes/182h/Climate/Solar/Maunder%20Minimum.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216030712/http://bill.srnr.arizona.edu/classes/182h/Climate/Solar/Maunder%20Minimum.pdf |archive-date=2010-02-16 }}</ref> The Maunder Minimum occurred within the [[Little Ice Age]], a long period ({{circa|1300|1850}}) of lower-than-average European temperatures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mörner |first1=Nils-Axel |date=July 2010 |title=Solar Minima, Earth's rotation and Little Ice Ages in the past and in the future: The North Atlantic–European case |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092181811000010X |journal=[[Global and Planetary Change]] |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=282–293 |doi=10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.004 |bibcode=2010GPC....72..282M |access-date=2 February 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The reduced solar activity may have contributed to the climatic cooling, although the cooling began before the solar minimum and its primary cause is believed to be volcanic activity.<ref name="VolcanoesLittleIceAge">{{Cite journal |first1=Thomas|last1=Crowley|title=Volcanism and the Little Ice Age|journal=PAGES|date=2008|volume=16|issue=2|pages=22–23|doi=10.22498/pages.16.2.22|doi-access=free}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)